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Le Mans / ALMS
IN THE COCKPIT: Jan Magnussen, Road America
The No. 3 Corvette should’ve been on the podium but due to contact, we ended up sixth...
Jan Magnussen encountered another tough ALMS race at Road America. (Photo: John Dagys)
Wow, what an ending after four hours of hard racing at Road America. The No. 3 Corvette should’ve been on the podium but due to contact, we ended up sixth. I got hit on the very last corner as the checkered flag came out and I was spun off the track.
The No. 01 Ferrari is not exactly on my Christmas card list at the moment. To his credit Johannes van Overbeek did come over to apologize but I really wasn’t in a very talkative mood after the race.
It’s just one of those things in racing. It gets pretty wild out there at times and I can see how it happened, but I’m very disappointed. It was a chance for my co-driver Antonio Garcia and I to close the gap to the No. 4 Corvette drivers in the championship and that didn’t happen.
Overall it was a good race for Corvette Racing. The strategy was spot on but the BMW teams took a chance on a late caution period. Their guess paid off with the late-race yellow flag. Had it not gone yellow at the end, the result would most certainly have been different.
But that’s the fun of a four-hour race. It’s an interesting length that rewards speed and puts a lot of emphasis on strategy. I like them very much and look forward to the next one – at VIR in September – before the big one at the end, the Petit Le Mans.
The competition in the ALMS GT class is so tight right now. Just think about this – at qualifying at Road America there were seven cars within half a second. Essentially we are all running the same lap times and there’s no huge advantage with running any one car. And with cars that run so close in times and speed, there tends to be on-track contact.
And that’s fine with me. As long as we don’t take each other out, I’m all for a little bit of fender banging.
Looking at some of the other cars in the GT class, Porsche has a very strong car, especially with their new model this year, and they tend to find speed where they need it. On some tracks, the Ferrari has the outright speed to rank among the best GT cars, especially at long tracks like Road America.
With Corvette Racing, we have two cars that are really strong all-around. We don’t have an advantage at one particular racetrack, but at every circuit the No. 3 and No. 4 cars are contenders for wins and podiums. It took the team from 2009 until now to really get as good as we are, but we really don’t have a secret that’s better than anyone else. Just hard work.
And when it all comes together, that’s where we go on the attack, and win. We hope that’s the case in Baltimore next weekend. Me, my teammate Antonio and all the guys have the No. 3 car prepared and will go to the street course with one clear objective – to win.
At this point podiums are nice, but the top step is the only one we want. I don’t want my next column to be like this one, or the one from Mid-Ohio. I think we got our bad racing luck out of the way this year, and now it’s time for the win.
Before the Baltimore weekend, I’m in for a bit of fun at home. I’m back in my home country for the GP of Denmark, the biggest race event of the year – racers and spectators come from all over Scandinavia just to be there. I’ll be racing my Camaro in the Danish Thundersport Championship and doing a bit of vintage racing, in a 1965 Austin Healey 3000.
The Camaro is always fun, but driving the old cars – like the Healey or the BMW 2002 that I’ve driven on occasion - is an interesting balance. You’ve got to take care of the car, as someone has put a lot of time and effort into it and they’re not like today’s race cars. But, the owners want their cars really to be pushed. So of course I do the best I can and generally keep the car sideways in the corners – if I can’t go fast I may as well look fast!
See you in Baltimore.
Jan
A winner in all 12 previous seasons of the American Le Mans Series, Jan Magnussen, a four-time class winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, drives the No. 3 Corvette Racing C6.R in the ALMS GT category with Antonio Garcia. For more information, visit www.janmagnussen.com.
The No. 01 Ferrari is not exactly on my Christmas card list at the moment. To his credit Johannes van Overbeek did come over to apologize but I really wasn’t in a very talkative mood after the race.
It’s just one of those things in racing. It gets pretty wild out there at times and I can see how it happened, but I’m very disappointed. It was a chance for my co-driver Antonio Garcia and I to close the gap to the No. 4 Corvette drivers in the championship and that didn’t happen.
Overall it was a good race for Corvette Racing. The strategy was spot on but the BMW teams took a chance on a late caution period. Their guess paid off with the late-race yellow flag. Had it not gone yellow at the end, the result would most certainly have been different.
But that’s the fun of a four-hour race. It’s an interesting length that rewards speed and puts a lot of emphasis on strategy. I like them very much and look forward to the next one – at VIR in September – before the big one at the end, the Petit Le Mans.
The competition in the ALMS GT class is so tight right now. Just think about this – at qualifying at Road America there were seven cars within half a second. Essentially we are all running the same lap times and there’s no huge advantage with running any one car. And with cars that run so close in times and speed, there tends to be on-track contact.
And that’s fine with me. As long as we don’t take each other out, I’m all for a little bit of fender banging.
Looking at some of the other cars in the GT class, Porsche has a very strong car, especially with their new model this year, and they tend to find speed where they need it. On some tracks, the Ferrari has the outright speed to rank among the best GT cars, especially at long tracks like Road America.
With Corvette Racing, we have two cars that are really strong all-around. We don’t have an advantage at one particular racetrack, but at every circuit the No. 3 and No. 4 cars are contenders for wins and podiums. It took the team from 2009 until now to really get as good as we are, but we really don’t have a secret that’s better than anyone else. Just hard work.
And when it all comes together, that’s where we go on the attack, and win. We hope that’s the case in Baltimore next weekend. Me, my teammate Antonio and all the guys have the No. 3 car prepared and will go to the street course with one clear objective – to win.
At this point podiums are nice, but the top step is the only one we want. I don’t want my next column to be like this one, or the one from Mid-Ohio. I think we got our bad racing luck out of the way this year, and now it’s time for the win.
Before the Baltimore weekend, I’m in for a bit of fun at home. I’m back in my home country for the GP of Denmark, the biggest race event of the year – racers and spectators come from all over Scandinavia just to be there. I’ll be racing my Camaro in the Danish Thundersport Championship and doing a bit of vintage racing, in a 1965 Austin Healey 3000.
The Camaro is always fun, but driving the old cars – like the Healey or the BMW 2002 that I’ve driven on occasion - is an interesting balance. You’ve got to take care of the car, as someone has put a lot of time and effort into it and they’re not like today’s race cars. But, the owners want their cars really to be pushed. So of course I do the best I can and generally keep the car sideways in the corners – if I can’t go fast I may as well look fast!
See you in Baltimore.
Jan
A winner in all 12 previous seasons of the American Le Mans Series, Jan Magnussen, a four-time class winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, drives the No. 3 Corvette Racing C6.R in the ALMS GT category with Antonio Garcia. For more information, visit www.janmagnussen.com.
Monterey
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